Investing in literacy

DAVID BOLLING

DAVID BOLLING | March 14, 2014

The educational landscape of America is littered with discarded teaching fads, lying about in expensive disarray like the random collection of Big Wheels, Barbie dolls and Play-Doh pots abandoned in the typical suburban family room.

We’ve had brain-based teaching, charter schools, constructivism, inquiry-based learning, No Child Left Behind, both phonics and whole-language learning, teach-to-the-test, multiculturalism, portfolio-based assessments and, of course, common core, to name but a few. Many, if not all, of these methodologies undoubtedly have merit. But the restless adoption of one teaching discipline after another is a little reminiscent of the relentless pursuit of enlightenment common among New Age seekers who drift from practice to practice like shoppers in a spiritual supermarket.

Those folks seldom find Samadhi and we, as a nation, are still searching for the educational holy grail as our children seem to be slipping ever farther behind the rest of the industrial world, especially in math and science.

So when someone offers up the latest teaching technology or promises another outcome-based curriculum guaranteed to double the college acceptance rate, a certain level of skepticism is in order.

All of which is a long-winded way to address the latest liberating gospel that promises to elevate school performance and achieve the new American dream of college or career for everyone. In a word, preschool.

For all the above reasons, skepticism is a healthy attitude. But preschool may well be one of the few magic pills we really need to swallow, because mounting piles of compelling studies demonstrate its value, when done properly, with properly-trained and properly-paid teachers who are recognized as the profoundly important specialists they should be, and not second-class educators.

The power of preschool to change the learning curve for lots of kids – both underprivileged and not-so – is pretty much beyond debate. Several studies conclude that preschoolers are less likely to be held back, have higher high school graduation rates, are less likely to spend time in jail, will earn more and, therefore, are a pretty safe investment. What isn’t so clear is how to pay for it, especially in California.

Far from leading the nation, California sits toward the back of the early-education pack (with 19 percent of students enrolled in 2011) and five states now provide (or plan to start) universal and free preschool. President Obama endorsed universal preschool last year, but for us in Sonoma, the outcome is still largely in private hands, including those of some generous community donors who have funded programs in local schools.

And, understanding that literacy is a key component of early education (88 percent of Valley third graders read below grade level), the Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance and the Sonoma County Vintners, decided to make literacy a primary fundraising focus for the 2013 Sonoma Harvest Wine Auction. Last week the fruits of that effort were distributed, and three organizations, including the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, shared the extraordinary bounty of more than $700,000 to “Fund the Future” of childhood literacy.